


MindBreaker

by RoseGhostie



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Lila Rossi, Chloé Bourgeois & Alya Césaire & Nino Lahiffe Keep Their Miraculous, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Good Chloé Bourgeois, Identity Reveal, Lesbian Chloé Bourgeois, Lila Rossi Lies, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Protective Chloé Bourgeois, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24118240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseGhostie/pseuds/RoseGhostie
Summary: Marinette's school life has plummetted because of Lila and she feels so alone because of it, but at the same time she had been getting closer with Adrien, and Chat Noir so it's definitely not all bad. But when both Chat and Adrien simultaneously have to leave for a week, Lila takes advantage of the sunshine child not being there to intervene with her plans.  Hawkmoth asked her to help him create the perfect Akuma for him, and she knows just the person that she can break down.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste & Chloé Bourgeois & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 33
Kudos: 205





	1. The Calm before the Storm

“Hello, Mindbreaker. I have a very special job for you starting today.”

“Anything for you, Hawkmoth.”

*****

“And you’re positive that it’s okay that I’m leaving for the week?” Chat Noir asked Ladybug for what was probably the fifth time that evening. The spotted heroine laughed softly and rolled her eyes, smiling a bit.

“It’s okay, Minou. It’s not like you’re going to be away for too long. And besides, before we’re superheroes, we’re also regular humans with lives outside of the suits.” She leans back on her hands, looking over at him. “And before you say anything, I promise that I’ll call on one of the others anytime there’s an Akuma.”

Chat Noir sighs, flopping onto his back. “I’m sorry LB. I know you’re perfectly capable I’m just-”

“Stressed about the trip and leaving Paris for longer than a day?”

“That, and other things.” He admits, putting his hands behind his head as he lay on the ground, looking at the sky. The pair were sitting above the observation deck of the Montparnasse Tower, the cool night air was refreshing and the view was spectacular, as always. However, despite this, Chat’s mind had a million things buzzing through his head. Sure, he was uncomfortable with the fact that he had to go to London for the week for a photoshoot his father had scheduled, though LB only knew it was a ‘family thing’ for the sake of their secret identities, but there was so much other stuff going on and honestly it had him really worried.

“Wanna talk about it?” Ladybug asks, shifting so that she can look at him better, clearly giving him her full attention.  
Chat frowns, but...maybe talking about it would help. He could use some advice, so he sits up again after lying there for a moment longer. “I’m….really worried about one of my friends.” Ladybug opened her mouth to say something, but Chat chuckled and smiled over at her. “Don’t worry Bug, I’ll keep it vague and won’t name any names. I know better.” Ladybug rolls her eyes, motioning for him to continue.

“Okay, so she’s been having a really rough time at school, not academically or anything, well, aside from Physics, but that’s nothing that I can’t help with….” Chat realized he’d strayed from the topic and flushed a little. “A-anyway, I feel like someone is going after her.”

“How so? Bullying?”

“Well...in a way. And I’ve been doing what I can to help her out, but I feel like she’s been keeping a lot of what happens to herself and is only telling me the little things that happen. But that’s just a feeling I’ve been getting. I’m worried about her, and since I won’t be able to be there to support her this week I….I’m worried that- I don’t-”

“You don’t want to have to fight her.” Chat nods, looking downcast. “You really think it’s that bad? N-not that I’m doubting you! I just want your honest opinion.”

“It’s bad, LB. It’s really bad and I...I don’t really know what I can do to help….”

Ladybug looks thoughtful as she likely ponders about it for a moment. “Well, for now you should just be there for her the best way that you can. Even when it’s not in person, hearing from someone who cares about them goes a long way. You should message her, or even call her when you get the chance to while you’re out of town. It’s always nice to know that someone is thinking about you, at least that’s my take on it. If you think it will help you should try it.” She advises before a little grin finds itself upon her lips. “Just don’t be too pushy about it, Lover boy.” Ladybug said, snickering and lightly shoulder checking him with her own. This caused Chat to flush a scarlet red.

“I don’t- I can’t- My Lady you know I-” He stammered out, trying to find his words again.

“You what, Kitty?” She asked sweetly.

Chat tossed his arms into the air exasperatedly. “Okay! Fine! So maybe I do like her a little! What’s with everyone always teasing me? First Plagg, now you! Who’s next? _Tikki_?” Chat crossed his arms and stewed, grumbling embarrassedly, his face still flushed.

Ladybug puts a hand on his shoulder gently and, with a soft giggle escaping her, said. “Sorry, I’m just joking around with you. But if you genuinely care about her then that’s all the more reason to reach out and just be there for her.”

Chat sighed, nodding. Ladybug was right, after all. “Yeah….I know. Thanks, Bug. I really appreciate you giving me advice.”

Ladybug waves him off good naturedly. “It’s what friends do. Don’t worry about it.”

The pair stayed out longer, continuing to talk about various things that were happening in their lives, with the unspoken words of “no identity tells” keeping them from divulging too much. It was nice, Chat thought, to be able to talk like this with Ladybug. She was one of his best friends, after all, if not his best friend. They may not know each other in their day to day lives, but he was happy being with her in the now.

They moved around the city as they talked, sometimes racing, as both of them were stupidly competitive and once his Lady’s button had been pushed there was no stopping her. They were both whooping and hollering, cracking jokes at each other as they soared across the rooftops, at one point catching the attention of Alya, who waved at them and snapped a picture when they both flashed peace signs at her.

They also passed the Dupain-Cheng Bakery, and Chat may have looked that direction a little longer than he had intended because while he wasn't paying attention he almost smashed into a chimney, causing Ladybug to outright laugh at him, but then she prompted him to pay a little more attention, because the last thing that they needed was to cause property damage that wasn’t mendable by means of magic. 

Eventually the pair decided to part ways, Ladybug saying that she would see him when he returns, and requesting that he let her know on the Comms that he was back when he got the chance, to which he happily agreed. Once they had split and Ladybug was out of sight, Chat doubled back and began to make his way to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. He wanted to see Marinette before he had to leave.

*****

Marinette just knew that Chat Noir would be coming to see her before he headed home. She’d seen the look that he’d sent to her house, the one that had caused the near chimney crash. He was probably going to let her know that he was leaving town tomorrow. It seems like Chat had managed to get close to both sides of her mask, which was nice, because she’d been able to open up to him about more things than she would have had she just been Ladybug. It was….refreshing. And it made her heart flutter just a little bit. He was her best friend both in and out of the suit. 

Unfortunately though, as it turned out, Chat Noir was a serial worrier. A good example was when he had been lounging on the chaise and she’d been working on a dress that she’d designed, a simple navy colored cocktail dress that had lace sleeves and shoulder covering with a two tiered, above the knee skirt, and she’d stabbed herself with a needle while working on a part that required hand embroidery. She’d only just barely flinched and let out a whispered ‘ow’ when Chat was suddenly sitting up, like he was getting ready to leap into action. She told him to settle down and that it happened all the time, that she was okay, and to ‘look, it’s not even bleeding you silly cat, calm down.’ 

It was sweet though, how much he cared. Honestly it was a breath of fresh air, because school had been getting pretty bad as of recent. Lila was back again, after another ‘trip out of the country for charity’ and Marinette thinks that Lila had noticed that Marinette and Adrien were both getting closer as friends and that had made her angry. Ever since then the girl has been trying to make Marinette’s school life as hard as humanly possible, and coming home being able to talk to someone about that, especially when Alya was precariously balancing on a thin line between Marinette and Lila while knowing that neither of the girls were each other’s biggest fan, was nice.

Soon Marinette heard the tell-tale sounds of Chat landing on the balcony above her room before there was a soft tapping at the trap door that led outside. She smiled and called out.

“It’s open, Chat!” and that was all the response he needed before he dropped into the room, entering the room hands first, immediately springing off the bed and down to the main level of her room.

“Evening, Princess.” He said, dipping into a sweeping bow in his normal, dramatic fashion.

“Hey Chat.” Marinette said, rolling her eyes and swiveling in her chair to face him. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this midnight visit?”

“Its not-”

Marinette took that moment to point at the glowing computer monitor that sat next to her.

“Oh, well I’m sorry for dropping in so late.”

“It’s fine, I’m just teasing you, I was up working on things anyway.”

Chat’s eyes lit up and a grin crossed his face. “Oh? Another Marinette original? What are you working on today?” He peered over her shoulder as a blush crossed her face. What was she supposed to tell him? That she was working on an outfit that had been inspired by him? Specifically how the two of them interacted? Nuh uh, no way, too embarrassing. She whirled around and covered up the project before stuttering out the first thing that came to her mind.

“I-I-It’s a secret!” Her tone was high pitched and nervous before she looked at him with a mock serious face. “You can’t look yet.” She was actually just about finished, all she needed to do was the last few embroidery bits and it would be done, but she wasn’t ever sure if she would actually wear it. Again, too embarrassing. Chat, thankfully, backed away and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs and looking up at her.

“Sorry Marinette, I won’t look.”

Marinette sighed in relief and smiled at him. “So, what’s up?”

Generally Chat would drop in and they would hang out, but Marinette knew that it wasn’t the case tonight.

“Oh, uh, well I wanted to let you know that I was going out of town for the week.” He rubbed the back of his head. “And since we’re friends, and I’ve been coming over here and hanging out with you pretty frequently, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to let you know too.”

Marinette felt her chest warm pleasantly and her gaze softened, she really was lucky to have him in (both) her life. “You’re a good friend, Chat. I gotta say, I’m pretty lucky.” She watched, almost in awe as Chat turned from pink to ladybug red in half a second.

“I-I-I’m doing my best.” He mumbled, looking down, seemingly embarrassed. Willing to spare him, and also remembering something, she stood up.

“Oh right! I wanted to give you something. Stay right there.” She said before heading out of her room and down the stairs to where she’d left the pastries she’d baked earlier that day. She placed them in a sack and carried them back up to her room where, an admittedly less embarrassed, Chat was still sitting patiently on her bedroom floor. “Here, I made these earlier and wanted to share them. There’s some chocolate croissants and Macaroons in various flavors for you and,” She held out a separate bag that was zipped closed in two different bags. “This is for Plagg. I think you mentioned something about his obsession with Camembert and so I made a cheese danish with it for him. I can’t promise that it’s any good though…”

Marinette didn’t think that Chat had heard anything because his eyes were blown wide and his ears were folded back. He was staring at her with amazement.

“What did I ever do to deserve you in my life, Princess?”

“Um, by being yourself?” Chat looked like he was about to cry when she said that, but he seemed to pull it together at the last second, which may have worried her, but at least he wasn't _upset_ , upset.

“Thanks, Marinette.”

“Not a problem, Cat Boy. Besides, it’s what friends do, don’t worry about it.” She said as she handed the bag to him. He looked at her with a puzzled face for a moment before seeming to brush it off.

“So, how’s school been?” He asked her softly. He knew that she’d been having a rough time, and he’s allowed her to rant, almost for hours sometimes, to him about it, leaving her feeling a lot better.

“Well, I can’t say that it’s particularly good, per-say, it just hasn’t been overly bad. At least not in the last few days. Which is….kind of weird? It makes me wonder what I’m missing, what’s being plotted behind my back.” She sighed, Lila had been suspiciously quiet this week and it was unnerving, to the point that Marinette was wondering if something was wrong with the other girl.

“Well, at least you’re getting a break?”

“Or something. I dunno Chat, the silence is….It’s unnerving.”

“I can imagine.” He looks thoughtful. “Anything good happen recently?”

Marinette blushed and pulled her legs up to herself, looking away from the cat. “Kinda, I’ve been....getting closer with one of my friends. He’s been super sweet and understanding about the whole thing. It was a little nerve wracking at first, but that was just me being the weirdo I’ve come to accept that I am.”

“You’re not weird! If anyone is weird here it’s me! I run around Paris in a magical leather catsuit!”

Marinette snorted out a laugh, leaning her cheek on her bent knee. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true. But that suit gives you a sense of freedom, I just got all stuttery and awkward.”

“It couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Oh, it was bad. I could hardly string proper sentences around him!” Marinette threw her arms up into the air before draping herself over the back of her chair with a heavy, defeated sounding sigh. “I must’ve looked real dumb.” She wasn’t about to outright say that it had been because of her absolutely massive crush, but it was kind of implied and she wouldn’t deny it if he’d asked. Luckily for her, he didn’t.

“What if he thought it was cute?”

Marinette flushed a deep red, burying herself into her knees again. “That would take a miracle.”

“Oh I don’t know about that. I think you’re plenty likeable, you’re funny and smart to start, plus you’re obviously very kind if you’re letting a stray cat come and hang out with you so frequently.” Chat smirked, his tail flicking a bit mischievously from side to side.

“Now you’re just trying to inflate my ego.”

“Is it working?”

>

“Maybe a little.”

For the next two hours Marinette talked with Chat about a few different things, happily showing him some of her newer designs, although keeping the more embarrassing ones to herself. Like usual it was fun, and served as a great distraction from her growing anxiety about what was possibly nothing. Eventually though, Chat had to leave and it was very late, so with a flourish he pressed a soft kiss to the back of Marinette’s hand and promised that he would come visit as soon as he had returned, after seeing his Lady, of course.

The next morning, Marinette had some unread messages on her phone, two of which were from Alya gushing about getting a really nice picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir the night before, and one from Adrien, telling her that she was more than welcome to talk to him while he was away. A warm feeling settled in her chest as she sent back a message telling him thank you and that she would. 

Plagg actually did cry when Adrien tossed him the treat from Marinette after they returned home and then looked at Adrien seriously, camembert cheese danish in hand. “I want you to marry that girl, Adrien. If you don’t then I’ll put cheese in all of your shoes and socks. Forever.”

Adrien blushed deeply and groaned before launching a pillow at the small God.


	2. Thinning Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lila's reign of terror begins, Chloé drags Marinette out to lunch, Marinette has a panic attack and Alya and Nino finally see the truth.

In the typical Marinette fashion, Monday morning consisted of her scrambling out of bed, after Tikki woke her up for the second time, and getting ready before bursting out of her house and sprinting to her school, albeit she was now going to the _lycée_ that was two blocks further down from Francois Dupont _Collége_ , but it didn’t take the 17 year old much longer than it had during those days, especially with her being Ladybug, although that was only for _dire_ situations. Today was not one of those days, thankfully. Chat hadn’t come to visit that night, so she assumed that he’d headed out of town already. Not that she was blaming her lack of sleep on the cat, no that was her fault for wanting to spend more time talking with him than she probably should, but he was good company. 

When Marinette finally walked into the classroom something very odd happened. The chatter that she had been hearing while approaching the classroom quieted down and she felt all eyes on her as she walked through the door. The air felt….off, like something wasn’t quite right but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was making her feel uncomfortable. That was when she noticed that, as she was walking over to it, Lila was sitting in her seat next to Alya. 

When she turned to look at Alya, giving her a confused look, she noticed that Alya was looking right back at her with one of her own, as if she were staring her down and trying to decide whether she should say something or not. Marinette’s heart was racing now because something was very, very wrong. She turned to look at Lila to ask her if she could sit down in her seat again, but before she could say anything to her, Lila burst into tears, covering her face with her hands dramatically. The animosity in the room seemed to spike then, and it was causing trills of alarm to run up her spine. Her fight or flight reflex was about to kick in and she wasn’t sure which one it was.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, their teacher, Mme. Beliveau walked in and cleared her throat, causing most students to turn to her as opposed to Marinette who could suddenly breathe again. But her relief was short lived because the woman looked at her scornfully.

“Miss. Dupain-Cheng I think you have done _enough_ to that poor girl, you’ve been moved to the back and see to it that you don’t bother Miss. Rossi again.”

“I’m a little-”

“ _Now_ Marinette.”

Marinette flinched, a little scared by the harsh tone that the normally kind teacher used, but she complied, not wanting to make any of this worse, walking back to the desk that she had been instructed to go to, glares following her on the way there. What in the world was going on?

Well, she got her answer during the passing periods, when the teachers swapped classrooms, the classroom would break out into not so hushed whispers and the rumors that floated around the students were actually terrifying to her. Some were about other people, normal things, but most of them were about Marinette and a lot of them were some serious accusations. From emotional to even going so far as physical bullying, those were some very serious accusations. Most of which Lila had done to her in the past. 

Classes up until lunch went relatively normally, the whole time she was being ignored by the teacher when she had a question or needed some help on an assignment. It was unnerving, but it got worse when lunch rolled around when, as she was packing her things away, Alix came storming up to her desk and slammed her hand down on it with such force that it made Marinette squeak in surprise. 

“A-Alix what-”

“We can’t believe you did that, Marinette!” She growled out, clearly holding back her anger. 

“I don't know what you mean I-”

“Don’t play dumb.” Alix rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and staring down the black haired girl. “Lila already told us everything.”

Marinette frowned, her head tilting in a confused manner. What the heck was happening? Alix’s words were sharp like knives and, even though she hadn’t said anything about what was causing this, they hurt. “Alix, I’m serious. What are you even _talking_ about?”

Alix didn’t get the chance to answer however, because Chloé walked up to them and practically dragged Marinette out of her seat, inciting more confusion as the blonde half drug her out of the classroom by her hand.

“Let’s go, Marinette. We’re leaving.”

“C-Chloé? What- Where are we going?”

“Just come with me, okay?” Her voice was surprisingly gentle when she said that, causing Marinette to just nod quietly.

Chloé led her to a small, very nice coffee shop that was a few blocks away from the school, leading her to a booth and then sitting down across from her, passing her one of the menus. 

“I recommend the Norvégienne Crêpes.” Chloe stated simply, opening her menu to glance across the options.

“Oh….Um….okay.” Marinette answered, still confused but glad to be out of what felt like a seriously toxic environment. “What’s your favorite drink to get here, Chloé?”

“The Pistachio Rose Latté is quite good.”

“Alright, I’ll try that then.”

Once the pair had gotten their orders in, Chloé sighs and leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, looking right at Marinette. 

“Rossi is out of control.” She stated, causing Marinette’s heart rate to spike unhealthily.

“....I figured as much….” Marinette admitted quietly. “But I’m still confused, I don’t even know what’s going on….It’s like….It’s like I’ve suddenly lost all of my friends.” Marinette let out a shaky breath. “The air in the classroom is just so- so hostile that it was getting hard to breathe. Thank you, by the way. For pulling me out when you did, Chloé.”

Chloé just waved her off. “We might not be close friends, but Rossi is something akin to a villain.” Her tone is flippant, but Marinette could tell that there was something else. Worry, maybe?

“So….So do you know what Alix had been yelling about? I heard...rumors in passing, but I don’t- I’d rather hear it from someone who knows at least a little about what’s happening.”

“W-Well….” Chloé’s expression changed a bit, from her normal Chloé-esque look to something more akin with concern.

“Don’t worry, Chloé. It might be...making me uneasy, but I can take it.”

“Lila’s been saying some things and...Well let’s say that none of those things are good. At all. And everyone has actually been listening to that _snake_.” Chloé sneered.

“....Wh-what has she been saying…?”

“She’s been telling everyone that you’ve been threatening her in the bathroom. About Adrikins, and something about blaming her for her own past akumatisations.”

Marinette’s blood had run cold, it was like….it was like Lila was using everything that she had done to Marinette and turning it around. All of that happened, but the person in the fire seat was different. She had known last week that Lila was being suspiciously quiet, is this what she had been planning? Marinette stared at her lap for a long time until Chloé’s voice brought her out of her own head. 

“I didn’t believe a word of it, of course. You’re _obviously_ too much of a goodie two shoes to do any of that, and it’s utterly ridiculous that anyone believed that load of garbage at all.”

Marinette smiled at this. “Thank’s Chloé.”

Chloé huffed in embarrassment and turned away, crossing her arms as her ears reddened.

*****

Chloé parts with Marinette before the other had been able to finish her food, claiming that she needed to do something before the lunch break was over, but she said that she would talk with her later and gave a sassy wave as she walked away, apparently paying for the bill before she headed out. Marinette, after she had eaten, decided to head back to the school. She wanted to sit and draw in her sketchbook, however she had left her good pencils in the locker room. It took her roughly five minutes to get back to the school, several stares from students in her classes following her as she passed by, though she did her best to ignore them. 

The locker room was empty, thank god, when she entered. The last thing that she wanted to do was be cornered by one of her classmates and be bombarded by questions that she wouldn’t be able to answer. And she remained alone in there as she had pulled her desired items out of her locker, that was, until the locker door slammed closed nearly on her hand, causing her to yank it back and jump, suddenly on alert.

“Wh- Hey!” She said, ready to snap at the person who had done it, until she had made eye contact with the perpetrator. 

Lila stood mere inches from her, a smug sneer painted across the girl’s face. The look in her eyes _terrified_ Marinette and she felt her heart kick up into overdrive. Her anxiety was spiking almost out of nowhere. Marinette felt like she was about to pass out or throw up, but she pushed through it as best she could though, she could do this.

“L-Lila! What do you need?” 

Lila just chuckled darkly and leaned back. “You don’t have to play nice with me.” She said, crossing her arms, clearly enjoying how absolutely _uncomfortable_ her presence was making Marinette feel, almost like she was thriving off of it. “I told you, didn’t I? That I would take them all from you. Well, It seems as though I’ve finally succeeded.” The grin on Lila’s face grew. “It was kind of a challenge to get your so-called best friend to start doubting you, but I wore her down along with the rest of the class, unfortunately Chloé Bourgeois is a different story altogether, but she doesn’t really matter.”

Marinette’s breath, despite her trying to keep it even, was shaky. “....H-Haven’t you done enough, Lila?”

“Mmm….No, I don’t think so. I’m going to make you miserable, Mari-brat, and there is _nothing_ you can do to stop me. You might as well submit to it, it would be better than the alternative. There are so many options! Not for you, no, but for me!”

Marinette was now feeling like she was in genuine danger, and that if she didn’t get away from this psychopath soon she would break. She felt like she was a cornered animal, or an insect, small and afraid for its life in the face of a predator. Despite the sweet smile plastered on Lila’s face that was terribly unnerving, Marinette attempted to stand tall, despite the hot tears that threatened to fall.

“I won’t do that, Lila. You may have said some lies to the class, but- but I’m strong and can pull through whatever you throw at me.” But….could she really?

Lila gave a fake little gasp, the other clearly able to tell that Marinette was tearing up, an evil glint in her eyes. “Oh? But you look like you’re about to cry, Marinette! Here, let me help you~”

Marinette hears a harsh crack in the room before her brain begins to catch up with the rest of her body and she feels a sharp stinging sensation on her face, leaving the girl frozen. Lila had just _slapped_ her.

“You might tell yourself that you’re strong,” Lila growled, grabbing onto Marinette’s hair and dragging her closer. “But you’re not. _I’m_ the strong one, and I’m here to put you in your place!” She shoved Marinette back against the locker that was behind her, Marinette unable to react, effectively having shut down. She only barely hears Lila speak over the ringing and blood rushing in her ears. 

“See ya later, Marinette!” She’d said before skipping out of the room.

Marinette remained frozen for what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few seconds before a sob tore itself from her throat and she sunk down to the floor. She heard someone shout her name and she gasped, she didn’t want anyone to see her like this but she just couldn’t stop the flow of tears and it was getting hard to breathe. The next thing she knew she was being wrapped into a tight hug by two sets of arms.

*****

Of all the things that Alya had expected to be doing today, being chewed out by Chloé Bourgeois was definitely not one of those things. Unfortunately, the blonde had been completely and utterly right, and the reality of that made Alya sick to her stomach.

__

_Alya was talking quietly with Nino about what was going with Marinette and Lila. She wasn’t ready to believe that her sweet friend would resort to violence with Lila, but the other girl was so insistent that it happened, and it didn’t seem like she wasn’t being truthful. Nino was on the same boat. He’s known Marinette since they were in diapers. Marinette cried when he’d stepped on an ant one time. An_ ant _. Marinette was definitely not the type to resort to any kind of physical harm whatsoever towards others, even if they wronged her in any way. Still, they were hesitant about it and they didn’t know why. However their hesitance stopped when Chloé approached them with a kind of disgusted look on her face._

_“Césaire.”_

_“Bourgeois.”_

_“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”_

_“Eating Lunch?”_

_“Not what I am talking about. Dupain-Cheng. Why aren’t you with her?”_

_“What do you- Are you talking about all that stuff that Lila said? We’re trying to work through it. I just don’t think that-”_

_“You’re not thinking anything! You’re hesitating. Aren’t you supposed to be her best friend or something dumb along those lines?”_

_“Chloé-”_

_“Don’t interrupt me Lahiffe, I’m talking.” Chloé huffs irritably. “If you’re supposedly her best friend you’re doing an absolutely shit job of it. You of all people should have been the first to realize that those utterly ridiculous rumors that are going around are complete garbage! And you!” She turns to Nino, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “You’ve known Marinette even longer than I have. You should have also realized this before you even entertained the idea that any of this was true.”_

_“But-”_

_“No buts Césaire! You’re supposed to be a journalist aren’t you? Use those damned journalist powers of yours and do the damn research for yourself! Hmph.” And with that Chloé Bourgeois stomped away from the two of them, clearly upset and throwing her arms up into the air. “Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous!”_

_The pair were silent for a moment before they looked at each other in shock, still trying to process what had just happened._

_“Did...Babe did Chloé just chew us out? And not in like...the usual Chloé way. I mean like-”_

_“Yeah, Nino. She did.” She said, dumbfounded before standing up. “I….I need to take a walk, I’ll text you later.”_

*****

Now Alya was sitting in the locker room on her own, scrolling through her phone and actually, as Chloé had said, used her journalist powers. Why hadn’t she done her research first? That was literally the first thing that she ever did when it came to situations with rumors! So why?! 

As she was looking through and comparing things that, now that she looked at them carefully, _clearly_ didn’t line up with Lila’s stories (i.e. the story about saving Jagged Stone’s cat, when the rocker’s pet was very obviously a _crocodile_ ), she heard someone enter in, soon after followed by another who was being decidedly quieter. What she hadn’t realized that the ending of this encounter that was about to happen would simultaneously break and repair some of her friendships. She had almost rounded the corner to see who it was before a locker was slammed shut and someone shouted in surprise and...anger? But that voice. It was Marinette. 

Everything went downhill from there, the second party on the other side of the lockers with Marinette was clearly Lila and she was being scarily aggressive towards Marinette. The things that she was saying got to Alya badly because it was _true_. Lila had worn her down to the point of doubting her sweet friend and it made her feel sick to her stomach. Alya sent off a message to Nino as the conversation unfolded, telling him to get his butt to the locker rooms because things were getting bad. His response was a prompt ‘coming.’

Everything hit her like a ton of bricks, it was as if a fog had cleared from her mind all of a sudden and she was finally able to see a clear answer again. Lila was the one who had been harassing her best friend and she hadn’t done a damned thing about it! The thought made Alya extremely angry, not only at Lila, but at herself for believing the bullshit that the liar had fed her all this time, not even just with that day, but ever since she’d known her. Marinette had been right all along and she’d done _nothing_ but ignore her friend’s warnings. And now they were here and Alya needed to do something about it.

But she couldn’t. Her legs were rooted in their spot, it was like there was some kind of force keeping her from being able to go and get Marinette away from Lila. Suddenly Alya felt useless and helpless all in one messily wrapped package. She couldn’t do _anything_. Tears are falling down her cheeks as this realization sets in, and she does her best to keep quiet, covering her mouth and breathing through her nose, suppressing a soft sob and wincing as she heard the sound of a slap before one of someone being shoved up against the wall of lockers. Alya’s legs were shaking, but why couldn’t she move them. _Move Dammit!_ All she wanted to do was leap around the corner of the lockers and pry that lying _bitch_ off Marinette. But as soon as Lila cheerfully skips out of the room and she is finally in control of her legs again she is sprinting around the corner, calling out Marinette’s name and wrapping the panicking girl into her arms as they sunk to the floor. She felt Nino join the hug after he had slipped into the room and Alya takes a moment to look at him, there are tears in his own eyes that told her that he’d at least heard something that happened in the room. He stands up after that, watching Marinette for a moment before going to keep watch through the small window of the locker room door. Alya took to helping Marinette, this attack was far worse than any of the other ones that she had witnessed or helped her through. 

“I can’t- I- Al-” Marinette gasped out, struggling to form words through her panicked breathing. 

“Girl you need to breathe, it’s okay. It’s just me and Nino here right now. You’re safe.” A sob escapes Marinette again and Alya feels her soul crumbling a little more. How could she have ever thought that this girl would willingly do _any_ kind of malicious things like the lies that Lila had been spouting? At the moment Alya really hated herself, but Marinette needed her right now. “Breathe, Marinette.” She commanded in a soothing tone, trying to comfort the girl and help her calm down. The more worked up that Marinette would get, the worse it would become, and Alya did _not_ want that. “Take some breaths with me, okay?”

“Ok- kay.”

Through sobs and uncontrollable tears that came from both of them, Marinette was following along with Alya, ever so slowly calming down, eventually her breathing returned to a semi-normal state, with a hiccup here or there. She was pliant against Alya, at least, and she seemed to be no longer shaking. Alya just hugged her friend tighter, if Marinette could ever call her one again. 

When Alya finally spoke her voice was barely a whisper, not wanting to speak any louder as to break the calm that had been created in that moment. “Marinette I am so sorry. I heard- I heard everything that happened and I’m such a _shit_ friend for not realizing what was going on. I don’t deserve to even have an amazing person like you in my life, especially when I wasn’t there for you today when I should have been.” Tears leaked from Alya’s eyes. She felt terrible and she still couldn’t comprehend that it had taken _Chloé Bourgeois_ telling her that she was being awful to Marinette for her to even realize it.

Marinette just shook her head against Alya’s shoulder, pushing herself deeper into her friend’s arms, holding her tighter. “N-No, please don’t blame yourself Alya. Really.” Her voice was muffled against the fabric of Alya’s shirt and her breath hitched. Marinette lifted her head from Alya’s shoulder, pressing their foreheads together. “I love you, you know that right?” 

“I love you too, girl. I’m so sorry I didn’t come to you first when I heard all of this.” Again Marinette shook her head.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re here now….”

“Uh, dudettes, I hate to ruin this because I know that we didn’t just have the best time, but the bell is about to ring and people are going to start coming in here.” Nino announced softly, walking over to them again. 

Marinette grimaced. “I….I want to go home….” She mumbles, dropping her head onto Alya’s shoulder again, causing Alya to chuckle softly and gently pet the noirette’s head. 

“Sure thing, Girl. I’ll take you home.” She says softly. “We can go back to the bakery, grab some food and go upstairs and watch horribly bad movies together. Sound good to you?”

Marinette snorts out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot, Al.”

Nino leans in and hugs the both of them before helping them stand up, Marinette grasping onto Alya’s hand tightly. 

“I’ll stay here and take notes for the both of you. I promised Adrien I’d take notes for him anyway.”

Alya nods and presses a soft kiss to Nino’s cheek. “Thanks babe. C’mon M, let’s get you home, ‘kay?”

Hand in hand the two girls walk out of the school after having gathered both of their things, heading towards the bakery.

*****

Sabine Cheng was a smart woman, so when her daughter and Alya came walking in through the door of the bakery she could immediately tell that something was wrong. Marinette was holding onto Alya’s hand as though it were a lifeline, both girls’ eyes were red and puffy, telling her that they had been crying. She looked over at Tom, who seemed just as worried as Sabine felt. Casting her husband a reassuring smile she handed him the dough that she was working on before walking over to the girls. 

“You both are back early.” She said gently, smiling softly at them. “Not feeling well?”

“S-Something like that.” Marinette managed, her voice sounding just a little raw. Sabine took note that Marinette’s hair, in one particular place, had been messed up, which just furthered her worries, but she wasn’t going to press them on the issue right now. They were both clearly hurting and needed to rest. 

“Why don’t you two head upstairs make yourselves comfortable in your room Marinette.” She told them. 

“Thank you, Maman.”

“Thank you Sabine.” Sabine nodded and pulled the both of them into a hug, to which they graciously accepted, leaning into her before they pulled away and made their way up the stairs towards the apartment. She watched with worried eyes as they ascended.

As soon as she had heard the door close behind them she sighed softly. Something was clearly very wrong, but she would give them time to work through it, as Marinette had always been like that, needing to work through things on her own before telling anyone about it. (She eventually would the next day, telling her that she’d had something of an absolutely horrid panic attack in the locker room at school during lunch and Alya had found her, calming her down. Afterwards she refused to go back to class because she felt sick afterwards. Now Sabine knew that it wasn’t the whole truth, but for then she would accept it until Marinette could open up more about what happened.) Tom was looking at her with worry.

“It looks like something happened….” He said softly, his gaze moving to the stairs and then back to Sabine. 

“I think so too, but for now let’s not press them about it. They look like they’ve been plenty shaken up about this whole thing already, let’s let them process their feelings before we do any gentle confrontations about it.”

*** 

Hours later Sabine made her way up to Marinette’s room carrying a tray of different baked goods, mainly macaroons and some various croissants, thinking that the girls may be getting hungry right about then, but as she entered into the room she found both of the girls curled up on the floor, lying on top of and surrounded by what seemed to be a nest of Marinette’s various stuffed animals and pillows, the main one being the large cat plush that she always had on her bed, with the heavy pink comforter draped over the two them. Honestly the blanket looks like it had been placed over the girls _after_ the fact, but that was impossible. Shaking off that thought, Sabine walked over and placed the tray on the desk next to the glowing monitor they had been watching movies on before moving to turn it off. 

Sabine heads back downstairs quietly after placing a gentle kiss to each girls’ forehead, flicking off the light in the room and leaving only the softly twinkling fairy lights that Marinette had recently gotten as the only light source in the room. Tom is waiting for her downstairs as she descends.

“It looks like they fell asleep while watching movies.” Sabine told him, grabbing her phone and dialling Marlena who picked up after about four rings.

“Hi, Marlena.”

_“Oh Hello, Sabine! What can I do for you?”_

“I just wanted to let you know that it’s likely that Alya is going to be staying over here tonight, so I wanted to let you know where she’s at.”

_“Oh, well, thank you but I got a call from the school saying that she wasn’t in her afternoon classes and-”_

“I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I would have called you earlier, but the bakery got busy and I’m sure you know what happens after that.”

_“Oh, of course! Nothing like working with customers and forgetting about doing things that deal with anything other than work!”_ Marlena chuckled. _“So, what’s going on?”_

“Well, both Marinette and Alya came back immediately after the afternoon classes should have started and well….It looks as though something happened.”

_“Are they okay?”_

“It looks like they’re doing better now, but when they had arrived here they seemed really shaken up and upset. They’re asleep on Marinette’s floor right now.” Sabine giggled softly. “So, don’t be too hard on her. I’m going to talk to Marinette tomorrow about it, but pressing them about it today might be a little….”

_“I understand Sabine, and thank you for letting me know. Could you tell Alya to message me when she wakes up?”_

“I left a note when I went to go up and check on them, but I’ll ask her if she did in the morning.” 

_“Alright, well thank you for letting me know, I really appreciate it. I’ve got to get going though, so I’ll talk to you later.”_

“Of course! Have a good rest of your evening Marlena.”


	3. Deep Breaths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tikki wishes that she could've done something more for Marinette. Nino spills the beans and Plagg and Adrien are angry™, but he reins it in and it turns more into worry than anything else. Adrien calls Marinette and they're soft. Alya teases Adrien, and also gets an outfit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have several sketches and drawings of the outfits mentioned in this chapter! Once I get them properly uploaded to my computer I'll add them into the body of the story where relevent.

The room is mostly dark when Marinette’s eyes open blearily. She’s lying on the floor of her room, curled up with Alya in a sea of stuffed animals and pillows and tucked comfortably under her comforter that she absolutely did not remember dragging down from her bed. Tikki maybe? It would have honestly been the best way she’s ever woken up, sans the time she and Chat had fallen asleep and she woke up while he was purring in his sleep and if that wasn’t the most adorable thing that has ever happened then she doesn’t know what was, but the dried tear tracks on her cheeks and the way her head and back ached ever so slightly made it rather unpleasant. Groaning softly, she carefully extracted herself from Alya and the nest they had created. The clock light that was glowing on her desk said that it was just a little before 21:00. 

Despite being emotionally drained and feeling a bit crusty, Marinette realized that if she was _this_ awake, then she must’ve at least slept for a couple of hours. Maybe four? She stood up and made her way to the bathroom after snatching pajamas along the way. When Marinette sees herself in the bathroom mirror she visibly flinches. She can only imagine what her parents had seen when she and Alya had appeared in the bakery after lunch had ended. She would have to talk with her mom later. Her cheeks had dried tear tracks streaking down them from not bothering to wipe them away, and now that she got a good look at her face she could tell that her cheek was definitely bruising a little, the spotted purple dots kind of bruising. Her hair was an absolute mess, the place where Lila had latched onto was sore from how rough she had been and it was completely tangled and messed up, in hindsight taking out her pigtails _before_ she and Alya started movies probably would have been a good idea, but she just didn’t care much for anything else at the time. 

After fighting with her pigtails and then brushing out her hair, finally getting the tangles out, Marinette took a comfortably long, hot shower. Tikki slips into the bathroom through the door, looking horribly guilty and very, very sad. She doesn’t say anything at first, just slot herself in the crook of where Marinette’s jaw and neck met. 

“Let me get dressed and we can go up to the balcony for a little bit, okay Tikki?” Marinette said, raising a hand and gently poking Tikki in the cheek. She can feel her little head nod before she flies through the door again, presumably heading outside. Marinette pulls on her pajamas and makes her way up, grabbing a blanket, her sketchbook, and her phone along the way. 

The night air is crisp outside, but not cold, which was nice as Marinette settled into the lounger and draped the blanket she had brought out with her over her legs and a little bit of her torso. Tikki was immediately on her, flying around and practically checking every inch of her to make sure she was okay. She saw a fire light in Tikki’s eyes when the Kwami’s gaze caught on the flowering bruise that decorated Marinette’s cheek, however that fire died down and the little god looked visibly upset.

“Marinette, what happened earlier really scared me.” Tikki says, floating up to Marinette’s eye level. “Are you really okay?”

“Mmm….I can’t say that I enjoyed what happened, but I’m….I’m doing okay right now.” And she was. Despite the circumstances, Alya was still her best friend and Marinette didn’t feel truly alone. She holds up her hands for Tikki to rest on. The little god hesitates for a second before she does.

“I’m glad you’re better.” But Tikki looks downtrodden, her gaze facing down and away from Marinette’s. Marinette could see the soft shine of tears glaze over the Kwami’s eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you earlier.”

Marinette shook her head. “It’s okay, Tikki-”

“It is _not_ okay, Marinette! You’re _my_ Chosen! I should have been able to do something to help you and I didn’t!” Tears were now falling down Tikki’s cheeks. Marinette gently kissed the top of Tikki’s head and gently thumbed the tears off of her little cheeks. 

“I knew you would have, Tikki. But if you had shown yourself there and done something it would have been more dangerous. I know how hard it is to watch someone you care about get hurt, trust me. Chat Noir does it far too much for his own good.” This caused Tikki to giggle softly, even through the little hiccups and tears. “I knew you were there, though. And just having that knowledge helped me out.”

“Okay, Marinette….” Tikki still looked upset, but she was less so than before. Marinette smiles warmly, she was telling the truth. Even just being aware that Tikki was there with her through that whole ordeal had helped her, despite the outcome of it. She honestly thought it would have been much worse had the little god not been with her. The reassuring pats on her thigh through the fabric of her purse was enough.

“Why don’t you get some rest? I’m going to do some sketching for a bit before I head back inside.”

Tikki looks like she wants to say something more, but gives in and eventually curls up on the top of Marinette’s head, pressing her own little kiss to it, making her Chosen giggle before opening to a new page in her sketchbook. She had been inspired earlier by Chloe’s actions and she wanted to draw something for her, maybe even make it for her if she ironed out the design enough. After a little bit of playing around with designs, Marinette finally feels like she had one that she liked and she kept going with it. Once she had sketched it out, she found herself beginning one for Rena Rouge. And even though she might not get the chance to tell Alya just what the dress _means_ to her, she planned on showing it to her later. 

As she was deep in the designing process, Marinette’s phone chimed from next to her on the lounger so she picked it up….only to almost launch it off the balcony out of sheer excitement when she saw who was messaging her. 

[Received 23:02] From: Adrien Agreste  
_Hi Marinette! I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing._

Marinette had to forceback a wave of nervous excitement that had bubbled up into her throat. She must absolutely have a few screws loose, because she had been able to talk normally to the boy for two _years_. Regardless, just as the same as it was with her partner now, she found her heart doing backflips and somersaults around him. She responded back.

[Sent 23:05] From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng  
_Hey Adrien! I’m doing okay right now, I guess. What’s up?_

*****

While at one of many of the scheduled photoshoots that were to take place over the course of the week Adrien caught a terrible feeling around lunch, and it stuck around with him all afternoon. It was like something just wasn’t right and it was making it hard for him to focus. Clearly his photographer had caught onto it because he had to call for a break and talk with Adrien about it.

“You’re quite distracted right now, Adrien.” She’d said, crossing her arms. “You’re going to need to focus a bit more so that we can wrap up this shoot.” Her voice was stern, but gentle. “Why don’t we take a short break and then get back to it? We can reconvene back here in about fifteen minutes or so. Go wander around a bit,” She winked. “I won’t tell your bodyguard. Get some actual air and then come back.”

Adrien sighed, maybe getting some air would be good. Plus it would be nice to walk around without the Gorilla. Sure he stayed back and gave Adrien his space, but not having his shadow looming around him was a welcome idea for the moment. 

“I’m sorry, Violet, and thank you. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” 

“No problem. Can’t have my models get overworked. Plus this gives me time to go over the pictures that we already took and see which ones we should go over again.” She waves him off. “See you in a bit!” She said before walking off towards her small computer setup. 

Adrien takes the time to get up and walk around the estate a bit. They were using the Graham De Vanily family’s estate as a shoot location because the gardens were perfect for what they needed for the upcoming summer collection release. Originally his father had planned for another area, but Adrien had suggested, or rather wore him down _somehow_ , to use the place instead. In the end it had been a rather good idea. It was beautiful here. And he got the chance to stay there instead of a hotel as he had argued that it was ‘safer than staying anywhere else’ regardless of his father’s pointless arguments back. He had grown a backbone against Gabriel Agreste recently and honestly it felt good. The man had controlled far too many aspects of his life and he was sick of it.

He turns through some hedges to find Felix and Brigette, his cousin’s girlfriend, a charming and kind of clumsy girl who, quite honestly, looked rather familiar, in a heated, yet seemingly playful conversation amongst the few trees that grew in the area. His cousin had calmed down significantly over the years, finally having come to terms, truly, with the death of his father and he and Adrien had grown close again because of that. He decided to leave the couple be and continue on his walk, pulling out his phone. He hadn’t gotten any messages yet, of course school was still going on, so he sent off one to Nino to ask him how he was doing before he looped the estate and went back to where the shoot was taking place.

The photoshoot continued on, Adrien more focused than he had been before despite the lingering feeling that something wasn’t right. After everything had finished up he checked his phone again and noticed that Nino had messaged him back, although they were...oddly serious for his friend.

[Received 13:30] From: Nino  
_Hey dude, got a moment?  
I need to talk with you.  
Adrien this is important._

[Sent 14:02] From: Adrien Agreste  
_I’ve still got some things to do, but I can absolutely message you when I’m done.  
Aunt Amelia wants to go to dinner, so it won’t be until later.  
Can’t message about it?_

[Received 14:06] From: Nino  
_We need to talk. Not text._

Well that was ominous. The message sent chills down Adrien’s spine accompanying the uneasy feeling that had been following him around since earlier. What on earth could have happened? He sent Nino a final text telling his friend that he would message him when he was done with everything, but it would probably be pretty late. Nino responded saying that it was fine and that he’d talk with him then. 

When he had said late he hadn’t imagined that it was going to have been 20:30(19:30 for Adrien, considering that he was an hour behind Nino) late, but there he was, messaging Nino saying that he was done with everything for the evening. He had retreated to his room after showering and bidding goodnight to his Aunt and Felix before pulling out his phone and messaging Nino. Immediately after he’d seen the little ‘read’ notification Nino’s face popped up on his screen and his phone was ringing. He answered immediately.

“You were right.”

A little confused, Adrien makes a face. Right? About what? He lifts his phone so that he could better look at Nino and immediately notices the almost furious look on his friend’s face. Something was terribly wrong if it had made Nino this mad. 

“Whoa, Nino, you look pissed. What happened? What was I right about?”

“Yeah. I’m pissed at myself. You were right, I...that- That _witch_ , she-”

“Nino you _really_ need to calm down.” He was worried that the DJ would attract a butterfly to himself and he had absolutely no way of contacting Ladybug if that were to happen. And from the looks of it, if Nino were akumatized then and there he would probably go and commit murder and that would _not_ be good. 

Thankfully, Nino took a breath, seemingly to help himself calm down. It looked to work a little bit, but he still looked upset. 

“Better?” Adrien asked him.

“Not really, but I’m calmer.”

“That’s better than nothing. So what happened to get you so worked up in the first place? What exactly was I right about?”

“Lila.”

Adrien felt the exact moment when his blood turned to ice in his veins. He’d known that something bad was going to happen if there wasn’t anyone to keep Lila’s lies in check. He’d been confiding in Nino for _weeks_ that Lila and her lying were going to end up getting someone hurt. Unfortunately, Marinette was the one that was taking the brunt of the girl’s ire, meaning that the lies were affecting Marinette the most. He’d been talking with her more about it, and he knew that she’d also been holding things back, with both him as Adrien _and_ Chat Noir. 

“What….Nino, what happened? Was someone akumatized? Is everyone okay?” The unspoken words of _‘is Marinette okay’_ hanging thick in the air.

“Adrien I- We- We almost weren’t there for her. It took Chloe practically yelling at us to snap out of it and-” Nino took a breath to calm himself down again. “Lila….She threatened her and….” He looked ashamed. “Well, Alya’s with her now. It was bad, man.”

Adrien’s heart feels like it’s about to beat out of his chest as he feels Plagg react next to him, the kwami’s fur bristling in agitation and there was a scowl on the small god’s face. And the face that Nino was wearing….must’ve been really bad.

“Nino, was it-”

“Yeah. It….It wasn’t pretty. Alya had to walk her through a panic attack. It was….It was really bad Adrien. Lila-”

Adrien didn’t really hear what Nino said after that because he was too busy holding back a growl. How _dare_ she! Going after _his_ Princess! Adrien swore that Plagg did growl then and Adrien didn’t blame him. He’d only been gone for two days and it seemed that Lila was taking advantage of that fact. He had half a mind to catch the next train back and _really_ let Lila know what he thought.

“Whoa, dude. You’ve got a really dangerous look on your face right now.”

This shook Adrien out of his dark thoughts of possibly going through with the murder of Lila Rossi. He could absolutely do it, but neither his Lady _nor_ his Princess would like that.

“S-Sorry Nino, I uh….got stuck inside my head there for a moment. Is Marinette okay? Well, I mean now, anyway.”

“Al walked her home after….yeah, anyway I think they’re still both at Mari’s. Alya said something about food and bad movies.” 

This caused Adrien to smile a bit. He(read: Chat) and Marinette would occasionally watch a terrible movie together when the time called for it. Those nights mostly happened when either Marinette or Chat needed a pick-me-up and a good laugh over something trivial. “That’s good. I’m glad about that at least.”

“Yeah…. Hey, listen. If you get the chance you should check up on Mari too. Like call her or something. She’s….well lets just say that she doesn't have too many fans right now. Plus I’m sure that she’d be happy to hear from you.”

“I’ll see if she’s awake and wants to chat after we hang up. Oh, and Nino?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks.”

“It’s what friends do, dude. I’m gonna do my best to be a better one.”

“I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sure thing.” Nino gave Adrien a lazy two fingered salute and hung up.

Adrien heaves a huge sigh after Nino ends the call, flopping down on the bed. Now he was really worried about Marinette. He’d known that Lila was bad, but he didn’t know just exactly how bad. As he shoots a message to Marinette, Plagg growls.

“I’m gonna _lose it_ , Adrien.” He says in an uncharacteristically serious tone. 

“Plagg?” He lifts the kwami up, sitting back up as he did. “Are you okay? Is this about the cheese danish?”

“ _Nobody_ messes with Mullo’s mice. Nobody!” Plagg hissed out, a nast glare on his face. For a moment it seemed as though Plagg had hesitated on saying ‘Mullo’s mice,’ but maybe Adrien imagined it.

“Believe me, Plagg. I’m upset too. I’m going to call Marinette to make sure she’s okay.” Adrien said, attempting to calm down Plagg before something got destroyed.

“Well?! What are you waiting for then? Pick up your phone and call Pigtails before I do it for you!”

*****  
Marinette had to take a moment to herself before responding to Adrien, letting him know that she was okay to chat with an ‘Uh...Sure, that’s okay.” and then almost immediately after the notification that he had received the message popped up he called her. This prompted Marinette to scramble and place Tikki gently in the flowers that were behind her, the small goddess still sleeping even after being moved suddenly. Answering the call, Marinette was greeted with a kind of tired looking Adrien, she could see a headboard behind him so Marinette assumed that he was in bed for the night. 

“Hi Adrien.” Marinette greeted quietly, a small smile on her face. “What’s up?” Adrien looked surprised, and maybe a little confused, for a moment before he said anything and she wondered to herself what the look was for, but she told herself that it wasn’t any of her business. He seemed to shake it off pretty quickly though.

“Nothing much, really… Well, actually, that’s not true. I wanted to see how you were doing. I, uh, heard from Nino a little about what is happening and wanted to make sure that you were okay.” Marinette felt her heart warm at this. She was going to have to thank Nino the next day at school. She and Adrien had started opening up to each other about things that had been bothering them recently, unbeknownst to her she was sharing to _both_ sides of Adrien’s mask. She pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed, her arms hugging the sides of her legs as she held the phone out away from her so that she could see the screen. 

“Well… I’m doing alright now, but the day could have gone better. She said with a soft sigh, looking away before realizing that the bruise on her cheek was plain to see and she hurriedly turned so that he couldn’t see it. Unfortunately the damage had already been done because when she turned back and faced the screen she could see a mixture of emotions crossing Adrien’s face. However the boy seemed to not comment on it for the time being. Marinette was grateful.

“...Need to talk about it at all?” He asked after a moment of silence. 

“Kinda? I mean… I probably should, but…”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Marinette. Just… If you need to talk about anything I’m more than happy to listen.”

“Thank you, Adrien.” She took a breath. “Today was just… I don’t know. It was bad. And everything feels weird right now, like something isn’t _quite_ right. I’m…not exactly sure how I should describe it.”

“I’m sorry...that you had a bad day, I mean.” His words caused a look of confusion on her face alongside her accompanying thoughts. 

“You have absolutely no reason to apologize, Adrien. It’s not like it’s your fault that Lila is a horrible person.” Marinette had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him. He was one of Lila’s targets too, although in a different manner than Marinette. It was in no way his fault. However she heard Adrien snicker a bit.

“Well, I suppose that’s true.” He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking about something before speaking again. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know that if you need to talk to someone about this you can always call me, okay? I know I sent you a message about it before, but…”

“Thank you, Adrien.” Marinette said with a smile. “I really appreciate that.”

“Of course!” Adrien beamed at her and Marinette mockingly shielded her eyes dramatically, laughing softly.

“Too bright, Sunshine!” She said, causing Adrien to actually laugh this time, with her joining in before she shivered because a cold breeze blew across her balcony. “Hang on, I’m going to head inside again. It’s cold out here now.” She said, her teeth chattering a little as she sucked in a breath when she put her feet down on the ground from the lounger. Adrien just nodded and he waited as Marinette gathered her things that needed to go inside and then hopped down onto her bed, closing the hatch behind her. Tikki nestled in her spot where she would usually sleep when Marinette had someone over for the night. Alya was now asleep on the chaisé, wearing the pajamas that she’d set out for her. The lights in her room were off for the most part, aside from the ones that were just above her bed. She flopped down onto the mattress and sighed, grabbing her phone and plugging it into the charger before adjusting herself to cuddle her giant stuffed cat. “You still there?” She asked in a quiet tone, only to see that yes, Adrien was still there and he’d also made himself comfortable in his bed while she had done the same, although she wasn’t sure if it was the lighting in the room or not, but it seemed to her like his cheeks were a little red, granted hers were as well but that was par for the course when she talked with Adrien.

“Mostly.” He said, causing her to chuckle a bit. “Did you do anything after you got home today?”

“Oh, well, Alya and I left school early, um….Oh, we watched a few pretty awful movies.”

“Yeah? Which ones?”

Marinette snorted softly. “Well we watched the so called ‘movie’ they made for _Avatar the Last Airbender_ , the only good thing about that movie was the fighting and how pretty Yue was. Then we watched Sharknado, which if you haven’t seen it I do recommend because it was just comically absurd.”

Adrien laughed at that. “Well I’ve already seen Sharknado, but was the Avatar movie really that bad?”

“It was terrible! And if you haven’t seen the series you wouldn’t have a single clue what was happening! They skipped so much my head hurt. And it moved way too fast. The show is so much better.” Marinette complained, pouting. “Alya and I spent the whole time criticizing and pointing out everything that they did wrong. It was ridiculous.”

“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it. I haven’t seen it yet. Although I’ve definitely seen the cartoon and I enjoyed it greatly, I must admit.”

“Oh good, I won’t have to disown you then.” Her words were accompanied with a whiny complaint of _Mari!_ “Oh relax, I was kidding. I’d never do that. When you get back you should come over and we can invite Nino and Alya to watch it again for you. I’m not sure if Nino’s seen it yet either.” Adrien looked like he wanted to say something, but seemed to change his mind, a light flush covering his cheeks. Marinette brushed it off and didn’t question him.

Neither Adrien nor Marinette knew when they’d fallen asleep, just that they’d continued talking about a couple different things, Adrien asking about some of Marinette’s designs and Marinette asking about how the photoshoot was going, when the conversation petered off. Later, even through his bleary eyes and even blearier brain, Adrien would swear that Marinette fell asleep before he had. He just didn’t bother to end the call.

Alya was the first one to wake up, considering that she was the responsible one who went right back to sleep after she’d showered and crawled onto the chaisé. Marinette hadn’t been in the room at the time the night before, so she’d assumed that the girl was up on her balcony, likely drawing. However, she hadn’t been expecting that when she climbed up the ladder to Marinette’s bed that morning was that the girl’s phone had been on a call for at least seven hours. And that the sleeping face on the other end was none other than that of Adrien Agreste. Snickering, Alya grabbed her own phone and snapped a picture of the scene before she took Marinette’s phone and hopped down from the bed. Time to commence teasing.

“Psst. Hey, Lover Boy, wake up.” Adrien grumbled in his sleepy state, it was clear that the two of them had stayed up far too much longer than they should have. Alya snickered again. “Adrien, you do realize that you _technically_ slept with my girl Marinette, right?” The blond’s eyes snapped open, wide with panic before a heavy flush settled on his cheeks.

“Dang it, Alya. You scared the crap out of me.” He groaned pitifully.

“Not sorry, Agreste.” She said with a laugh. “But you guys left the line connected all night, so I decided to take advantage of it.” Adrien almost buried his head under his pillow before he sat up.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. You and Nino do it all the time too, you know. At least I have the decency to let you sleep.”

“And miss out on teasing our favorite sunshine child? No way.” Alya grinned. “Besides, Nino and I are _dating_. We’re allowed to fall asleep next to each other.” Oh. _Oh_. Oh boy. Alya doesn’t think that she’s ever seen someone turn _that_ shade of crimson before. She managed to snag a screenshot before she missed the chance. “Relax, Romeo. Don’t worry about it. You should ask Marinette about the time that she left her phone on for twelve hours straight. Now _that_ was an experience. I don’t think Nonna ever let her live it down.”

“Ugh.” Adrien flopped back down onto the bed dramatically. 

“Well, I suppose that’s enough torture for one day, Sunshine. You should sleep while you can for those Shoots you have this week.”

“I’ll put cheese in your _shoes_ , Alya!”

“Yeah, yeah. Good luck with that. See ya!” She hung up the phone, but before she moved to change her clothes she sent off a message to Adrien containing the picture that she had taken of Marinette snoozing while curled around her giant stuffed cat holding onto her phone, Adrien’s face clearly on the screen.

[Sent 06:05] From: Ladyblogger  
_Snagged this picture before I started pestering you. Rest well, Sunshine!_

The response that she got back from Adrien only moments later had Alya in stitches.

[Received 06:06] From: Sunshine Child  
_...I will no longer be putting cheese in your shoes._

*****

When Marinette finally wakes up it’s to Alya pacing back and forth in her room. It’s about 06:30, she notes, which is much earlier than she is used to, but she was actually _awake_ , awake for once, so no one was going to hear her complaining. Remembering that she had been talking to Adrien when she’d fallen asleep, she blushes faintly and decides to check her phone only to realise that it’s been set neatly aside on it’s charger. This was odd to her because she could’ve _sworn_ that she had been holding it when she finally fell asleep. At most it should’ve only fallen out of her hand.

Oh right, Alya probably set it aside for her. Shaking off whatever sleep was left fogging her brain, Marinette looked over at her friend, who still hadn’t noticed that she was awake yet, considering that Marinette was above her head though, it wasn’t very far fetched. The girl was still pacing in a circle, seemingly deep in thought.

“Alya? Why are you trying to make a hole in my carpet?” Marinette finally asks, starting to come down from the loft. 

“Oh, sorry Marinette. I was just thinking.” Her incessant pacing stopped, much to Marinette’s delight. Alya had been so absorbed in her mind and pacing that it had been making Marinette dizzy just watching her. Marinette stretched before she leaped down from the loft, landing surprisingly gracefully. 

“Well, don’t think too hard, I can practically hear your servers overloading.” Marinette quirked up a smile. “You’ve got steam coming out of your ears.” She teases, lightly bumping Alya’s shoulder with her own. Alya grinned and bumped Marinette back with a soft laugh.

“No promises, Girl.” She said. “Hey, got any outfits I could borrow? Considering how impromptu this sleepover was I neglected to bring any clothes with me.” Marinette’s eyes sparkled and she nodded. 

“Of course I do! Let me get it for you.” Marinette made for her closet, not the one that she stored her regular clothes in, but the one that she stored her original designs in. She pulled out an orange, black, and white bundle of clothing items and then laid them down on the freshly made chaisé so that her friend could see it. “I’d originally planned to give this to you for your birthday, but today’s good as any other day, so here!”

She spread out the clothes on the small bed, revealing an off the shoulder loose fitted Orange short-sleeve crop top accompanied by a black high waisted skirt with an orange zipper. Underneath the crop was a simple white tank and a pair of gradient orange dipped tights. The top was embroidered with a white fox print on it. 

“I remember you talking about how you were a fan of Rena too, so I wanted to surprise you with this.” Marinette said happily before being practically tackled onto the chaisé by Alya who squeezed her tight.

“You’re too precious for this world, Marinette!” Alya pulled back and smiled brightly. “I love it!” This caused Marinette to beam. 

“I’m glad you like it, Al.” Marinette said, patting Alya on the back. “I need to get dressed too, but while we do that could you message Nino and have him come meet us here, like...pretty quickly?” She asked. She wanted to talk about what she was thinking about doing. Alya raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded and got to messaging Nino. Meanwhile Marinette moved to get changed, her eyes floated over to the outfit that was resting on her desk, but she shook her head and decided to wear something else. 

Eventually Marinette pulled on a maroon colored hoodie that she customized herself, having embroidered flowers onto it, like the ones that were on her favorite shirt. She threw on a pair of dark blue jeans and some sneakers just in time to hear a knock coming from her bedroom trapdoor. 

“Girls? Nino is here.”

“Okay Maman! You can send him up!” She said, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail instead of her traditional pigtails. Nino walked up into the room as they were both finishing up putting their things together. 

Nino comes up a few seconds after they hear Sabine head down the stairs that lead to Marinette’s room. His head popped through the hatch and he greeted them. 

“Mornin’ dudettes. What’s with the sudden notif for me needing to come over?”

And as Nino walks into the room, Marinette begins to explain.

“Wait… _WHAT?!_ ”


	4. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette explains some things to Alya and Nino, Chloé makes a friend and kidnaps Marinette twice in one day. Stories are shared and Adrien gets embarrassed and then Chloé tells him to stop being a baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter day! Sorry it took me so long to crank this one out! I actually have most of the story written out, well, an outline with a detailed account of everything that is going to happen (I technically still need to type out the chapters, but it's mostly putting them into coherent paragraphs.) Anyway the reason it took so long is because I finally got around to getting P5R and I've been doing nothing but playing that game lol

Honestly Marinette had expected the reaction from the both of them. She watched as several emotions crossed over Alya’s face and it would have been hilarious had the situation not been so serious. Nino stood in a silent shock as soon as the words had slipped out of her mouth.

“You can abso-fricken-lutely _not_ be serious about this M. I won’t leave you on your own! After what happened yesterday it’s probably going to get worse!” Alya practically screeched out, causing both Marinette and Nino to cover their ears for a brief moment. 

“While I don’t agree with the screeching, I agree with Alya, dudette. You’re crazy if you think we’ll just up and not talk to you at all during this!” Marinette frowned at this, her shoulders sagging a bit. She knew that both of them would be against it, but… it would just be safer that way. 

“I _am_ serious. Listen, Lila is going to be suspicious if you both immediately start sticking with me after what happened yesterday. Sure, the situation is...not ideal, but I don’t want her to start targeting the both of you too. She’s dangerous enough as is, even without being attached to an Akuma butterfly. Not only would the sudden deviation away from her lies make her target you, she’ll be furious. And if she attracts a butterfly the first people that she’ll be going after won’t be me…She...she knows too well what would hurt the most.” That wasn’t to say that Marinette wasn’t anxious about what was going on. Lila had really terrified her the day before and she was practically _begging_ the universe to not let that happen again, because if she were cornered like that again Marinette could not be held liable if she lashed out amidst her panic. 

She had to be strong though. She could do this. They would figure out what was going on and it would go back to being somewhat normal again. 

Maybe.

“I really don’t like this, Marinette.” Nino said seriously. “What happened yesterday was-”

“I know, Nino.” Her shoulders sagged. “It was bad, trust me, I was there.” She let out a halfhearted, sigh of an anxious laugh.

“I don’t want to do this, M. What if-”

“Hey, I don’t like this any more than the both of you do, but it’s better than putting targets on your backs too. I’ll be okay, I promise. After all, I have some pretty amazing friends by my side, even if at a distance.” Marinette takes Alya’s hands into her’s and gives them a reassuring squeeze. “We can get through this.”

Alya leaned down and rested her forehead on Marinette’s shoulder with a defeated sigh, Marinette knew that she was caving in reluctantly. But this was for the best. 

“Okay, Marinette. But you better expect us over at the bakery after school when we can ditch Lila and the rest of the class, yeah?”

Marinette chuckled softly and then gave Alya a gentle pat on the head. “Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She then looked over at Nino. “Oh, Nino?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for telling Adrien,” She saw Nino flinch and had to hold back a giggle. “I’d...ah...Probably wouldn’t have told him about it myself, to be honest, but talking to him last night helped some. So thank you.” Nino visibly relaxed and shook his head.

“Nah. Honestly, my man’s been trying to talk to me about this for like two months and I’ve been kinda ignoring it. Sorry about that again, by the way.”

Marinette waved him off as she felt Alya’s arms wrap around her and give her a squeeze before she let go and stood up straight. “I’m not going to say that it was okay, but Lila can be pretty convincing when she wants to be, so I’m not holding it against you.” She glanced over at the clock. “You guys should think about heading out soon. You should go before me so that there’s a considerable gap in time between when you get there and when I get there. It’ll draw less suspicion, especially if I burst into the classroom like usual.”

“Okay M, but be careful, alright? If anything happens I want you to call one of us, okay? I’m gonna change your contact name to something else so that if something comes up you can call me no matter who I’m with.” Marinette readily agreed with her before Alya grinned teasingly. “You should also keep Adrien in the loop, you both looked awfully cozy this morning.”

Marinette felt her face grow hot from embarrassment. They’d ended the call last night, right? _Right?_ “W-Well y-y-you guys sh-should get g-g-going to school!” She squeaked out in a high pitched, clearly strained voice. “I-I’ll see you at school! BYE!” She said as she shuffled her friends out of her room and down into her living room before rushing back upstairs and slamming her door as she heard the hysterical cackling of Alya leaving the apartment area. 

Marinette sighed and sunk down into her computer chair, frowning and lying her head down onto her crossed arms on the table as Tikki fluttered over to her. “Marinette?”

“I’m doing the right thing...aren’t I, Tikki?” Tikki hums a moment before she spoke.

“I can’t honestly say that I approve of you keeping your emotional safety net at arm’s length while you’re at school, but I know that keeping them safe means so much to you and you would worry needlessly about them if you didn’t do that.” She said before stating. “But whether or not this is a good idea is honestly up to you. You’re the main factor here. Are you going to feel better if Lila keeps her sights off of them?”

“Much.”

“Then there’s your answer. Too selfless for her own good, as always.” A soft scrap of fabric was flicked in Tikki’s direction and Tikki easily flew around it, giggling. “You’re going to have to try better than that if you want to catch _me_ off guard, Marinette.” She flew over and planted a soft kiss onto Marinette’s head. “Protecting the ones you care about is very much a Marinette _and_ Ladybug thing to do.” 

Before Marinette could respond there was practically a pounding at her trapdoor that led into her room, surprising her and causing her to sit up straight, Tikki zipping into her purse and out of sight. “U-uh, Come in?” She called out in confusion before the door was wrenched open and there, in all her glory, stood Chloé Bourgeois.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Now can you tell me why the hell I saw Lahiffe and Cesairé leaving _without_ you?” She said, crossing her arms, looking mildly irritated. 

“C-Chloé? What are you doing here? A-and they left without me because I told them to?”

“I expect you to tell me the reason why later, but for now I’m here to pick you up and walk with you to school. Why else would I come here? You should be honored.” Chloé snorted and flipped her hair dramatically.

“Um, for pastries?”

“Oh don’t be a smartass Dupain-Cheng. I’ll be outside. You grab whatever you need, or whatever, and meet me down there. _Don’t_ keep me waiting.” And with that Marinette was left alone in her room again in a state of utter confusion and mild shock once more because of the blonde haired teen.

“Well, if that wasn’t the weirdest thing to have happened to me yet, then I don’t know what is.” From her purse, Marinette can hear Tikki giggle. 

“It seems to me like Chloé is trying to be friendly in her own, very Chloé like, way.”

“...That might be the case. And I guess I can’t say that I mind the company.” She said as she gathered all of her things up into her school bag before making her way down and out of the apartment and into the bakery. She kissed both of her parents goodbye before stealing a few macarons and heading out the door, finding that Chloé was indeed waiting for her.

“ _Finally_.” She heard Chloé say dramatically, putting her hands on her hips. “It’s freezing out here. I want to get moving _before_ winter arrives, thank you very much.” Chloé was one to talk. 

“Don’t be dramatic.” Marinette said, although her shivering was telling a completely different tale, causing the blonde to snort. 

“Yeah sure, Miss chattering teeth. Telling _me_ that _I’m_ being dramatic.” Chloé shrugged her bag into a more comfortable position as they began walking. “I’m Queen Bee, of _course_ I’m going to complain. I’ll literally fall asleep if I’m not moving.” She muttered. Marinette understood how the other felt far too well. Being _Ladybug_ , if she stays out in the cold for too long while not doing any strenuous movements she might actually go into hibernation as well. It was part of the reason that she sprinted to school practically everyday now.

“Fine, call me out on it, see if I care. We’re both cold, so what?” And with that the topic dropped, and Chloé, as tactful as ever, went straight in for the sting.

“So, what happened yesterday? You and Cesairé weren’t in class after lunch even though I took you out to my favorite coffee shop!” She said, although it wasn’t in any kind of accusatory tone, it was just Chloé being, well, Chloé.

“I went back home…” Marinette said, feeling a bit nervous. What would Chloé say? How would she react? If-

“That is _not_ what I was asking, Dupain-Cheng and you know it. I _know_ you went home. I want to know _why_.”

“...right, um, well…” Honestly Marinette wasn’t exactly sure why she was so nervous about talking to her about this. Chloé, in recent weeks had stopped having any semblance of hostility toward Marinette, and instead had even talked to her amicable on several occasions, of course Adrien had been there as a mediator, but he hadn’t once had to step in. And if Chloé getting her out of the classroom the day before was anything to go by then…

As she was lost in her thoughts and being conflicted about what she should tell Chloé, the other answered for her.

“You do know that I can just get the answer from Adrien, right? Lahiffe tells him everything, so if they talked, and I would bet my allowance that they did, I can just ask him.” Well that was certainly true, at least. Marinette sighed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She said, defeated. “I talked with him last night too, he called me, because he was worried about what Nino had told him.”

“That sounds like something he would do.” Chloé stated simply. “So tell me what happened, and I want to hear everything that happened. So that I can have more of a reason to despise Rossi.” Marinette snorted before crossing her arms and thinking for a moment. She finally decided that she would tell Chloé about _most_ of what happened.

“...Lila cornered me.” She started, taking a breath. ....in the locker room before I could head back to class. She, well she basically promised to make me miserable.” Her shoulders slumped a bit. Remembering in detail what had happened the day before. Absentmindedly her hand moved up to her cheek where Lila had slapped her. As Tikki had pointed out before, she had bruised a little bit, the speckled kind of bruising that usually happens from a hard slap. And boy was it hard, although it took time for Marinette to process just how hard that she had actually been hit, since she was in a state of shock and panic after all.

Chloé stopped her by stepping in front of her, a slight scowl on her face. “What else happened?” She asked her, before narrowing her eyes at Marinette, causing her to shrink back a bit. “What is this?” She points to the exact spot. Marinette opens her mouth to say that she fell but she was cut off before any words came out. “And don’t tell me some dumb crap about you falling. You’re clumsy, which means you know how to protect your face. What. Happened.”

Marinette cast her eyes to the ground, her hand dropping from her cheek, looking kind of ashamed. “I was….she...she slapped me.” She mumbled out quietly. 

Chloé’s shriek of “ _WHAT?!_ ” could probably have been heard across Paris. She was literally buzzing with anger. Marinette could actually _hear_ it. 

“Ch-Chloé…?”

“I’m going to find Ladybug and get her permission to use my stinger on that- that- that horrible excuse for a human being!”

“ _Chloé!_ ”

“What, Marinette?!”

“Your Bee is showing!” She says quietly, rubbing her hands together nervously. She’s never seen Chloé quite this upset before, especially about….no- _for_ her. Chloé crossed her arms and huffed, the sound quieting down significantly, but not completely.

“I’m okay, Chloé...Okay that’s not quite right, but I’m better now than I was yesterday by far and I don’t think Ladybug would condone violence with regular, everyday civilians. No matter how awful they are.” The buzzing calmed down and was now gone at this point. “But I appreciate it, thanks.”

“Hmph. We might not be friends, but Adrikins likes hanging out with you and trusts you a lot. If something more happens to you I’m sure he’d get upset. So you’ll be coming to lunch with me again. And this time we’re going to the smoothie place nearby.”

Marinette flushed and then nodded. “Thanks, Chloé. Maybe….Maybe we could try? Being friends, I mean.”

It was Chloé's turn to blush brightly, seemingly embarrassed she stomped off ahead a little bit. “Both you and Adrien are the same! Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! Fine! We can be friends, I _guess._ ”

Marinette laughs softly and then follows her into the school, a smile planted on her face. Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad.

*****

Morning classes went much the same as the day prior, an awkward, oppressive air hanging in the room with rumors spilling from her classmates’ mouths. She tried her best to ignore the defeated feeling she was getting, she tried _really_ hard, but even to the best of her mental abilities there was no way to completely drown them all out. She felt like disappearing, she’d even heard one of them say that they’d wished that she wouldn’t have come back. That it would’ve been better that way.

Maybe it would have been. Maybe she should’ve just stayed home and not come back to school. All it seemed like was that she was causing problems for everyone. Her heart rate skyrocketed and she’d felt like she was going to start hyperventilating, until she felt a little presence press on the back of her neck. Tikki had moved up to rest in her hood and was leaning her full weight onto Marinette to get her to snap out of it. Ever so quietly, she’d heard the Kwami speak. 

“Marinette...You need to stop thinking about this right now. You’re fine. You know that you haven’t done any of this stuff that they’re talking about. It’s alright to be not okay, but you can’t go and pass out in the middle of class. Focus on something else. Why don’t you message Adrien? You’re in the back of the class, and while the gossip is floating around the room, no one is actually paying attention to you. I think talking to someone would be a good idea.” Tikki whispered to her. She’d sounded really worried. Marinette realized that the small God’s worries weren’t unfounded either, there was a real danger in attracting an akuma butterfly if she didn’t put a rein in on her spiraling emotions. And if she were the one to be akumatized… Marinette shuddered at the thought of it. No one would be there to stop her. 

“Okay, Tikki.” Marinette breathed out quietly. Tikki was right, of course. She really did need someone to distract her from what was going on. She heard her giggle and felt her relax back into the spot in her hood as Marinette opened the messaging function on her tablet, turning the sound off so that she didn’t get in trouble. She decided to use the pen function as opposed to typing, writing out a message to Adrien.

[Sent 09:36] From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng  
_Hey, Adrien. I know it’s pretty early, but if you’re free to talk right now it would be very much appreciated._

Adrien’s response was almost immediate, which surprised her because he was supposed to be busy this week. Maybe he was having a rest day?

[Received 09:37] From: Adrien Agreste  
_Are you okay? Did something happen? Shouldn’t you be in class???_

Marinette had to hold back a quiet giggle as she responded so that she wouldn’t call any attention to herself. However, she could feel herself relaxing as soon as she began replying.

[Sent 09:39] From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng  
_I’m...alright. I just need a distraction. And I could be asking you the same thing. Don’t you have your photoshoots to deal with today?_

[Received 09:41] From: Adrien Agreste  
_Eh...They’re still focusing on setup. I probably won’t be needed for another hour or so. Maybe more than that depending on if they can figure out why some things are missing._

[Sent 09:42] From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng  
_What did you do_

[Received 09:42] From Adrien Agreste  
_I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ_

[Sent 09:44] From Marinette Dupain-Cheng  
_And when did you get so mischievous? I thought you were supposed to be the well behaved child._

[Received 09:45] From: Adrien Agreste  
_I’m offended. I’m always like this._

Marinette was smiling to herself as she bantered back and forth with Adrien for the rest of class, thankfully taking her mind off the gossip floating around the room. Unbeknownst to Marinette though, one person was paying attention, and the small smile that was resting on the girls face was really _pissing her off_.

*****

Much to Chloé’s displeasure, the minute that the bell for lunch was ringing was the minute that she watched Alex once again stand up with her chair screeching across the floor before she began stomping over to where Marinette was sitting, looking blissfully unaware of what was about to go down, that was if Chloé wasn’t about to do something about it. But she was, after all, the black haired girl _was_ her friend, and despite how it might seem, Chloé Bourgeois was fiercely protective of her friends. 

She made her way over to where Marinette was sitting and grabbed the girl by the arm, obviously surprising her. For a brief moment Chloé had seen that, instead of the note taking screen the girl _should’ve_ had open on her tablet, the messaging application was open and it was obvious that she had been messaging this person for a while now. 

“Lets go, Marinette. Those smoothies aren’t going to wait for us all day.” She stated, crossing her arms and grinning at her. “You should probably let him know that you’ve gotta go though.”

“C-Chloé! I-”

“Oh don’t give me that. Now c’mon. There are some fruity smoothies with our names on them and I’m hungry.”

This got Marinette to laugh and roll her eyes as she stood up from her chair, grabbing the tablet and her bag. 

“Okay, Okay. Let's go then. I want to see how good these smoothies actually are.”

“I can promise you that you won't be disappointed.” Chloé assured, leading her out of the school and taking a right as soon as they stepped off of the front steps. 

The walk to the smoothie shop isn’t very long, and Chloé was pleased that, even though she had been a little forceful about it that morning, Marinette had decided to tag along. Along their walk she told Marinette some stories about herself and Adrien as children and she’d done the same, turns out that Marinette as a child was much clumsier than she had previously thought. Chloée decided to regale her with a story about Adrien and herself from when they were about seven or so after they had put in their orders. Getting Marinette to laugh to the point that her sides hurt was oddly satisfying.

“You have _got_ to be pulling my leg. There is absolutely _no_ way that happened.” Marinette said after she was finally able to control her breathing. “That sounds like something that _I_ would do. I can’t imagine Adrien, even as a kid, getting his head stuck between the stair railings!”

“It’s true! We almost had to call the fire department! Ask him yourself. I think I laughed at him the entire time while daddy was panicking about telling Gabriel about it.” Chloé rolled her eyes. Adrien might be a kind, beautiful human being, but he was also a walking disaster. That much was the truth, if some of the stunts pulled by Chat Noir were anything to go by. She’d known for a while, although she _obviously_ hadn’t told anyone about it. There was no need to put the boy she considered a brother in any more danger than he already was. Truthfully, not even he’d known that she knew. Plus it was like, pure coincidence that she’d found out as well. She’d stumbled across Chat Noir as he had bounded away from the scene after a particularly rough Akuma, landing in an area that was out of the way, so no one could see him...However, Chloé wasn’t an idiot. When she’d seen Adrien walk out from Chat Noir’s hiding spot everything had just clicked into place. She was currently in the process of dropping hints that she had figured him out, unfortunately the boy was as dense as he was brave, so he had picked up on absolutely nothing.

Marinette had immediately taken to her phone and was clearly messaging Adrien because within seconds of her sending out the message Marinette was in stitches again, and Chloé’s phone was making noise, indicating that she had multiple messages. She raised an eyebrow and peered down at the messages on her phone. Every single one of the ten messages that she had received were from Adrien. Each one of them saying how much she had betrayed him.

“Oh...He’s embarrassed.” She states with a neutral face, making eye contact with Marinette who had briefly stopped laughing when she had spoken. Then the both of them burst out laughing again as they picked up their smoothies and made their way to a table near one of the windows. Marinette was almost in tears as they sat down. 

Chloé’s phone rings as they set their things down on the table, so she answers it. Obviously it was Adrien, because the second that she had pressed the answer button she could hear the boy whining on the other end of the line. 

“Chlo I can’t _believe_ you told her that!” He whined pathetically as she placed him on speaker at a decent volume. 

“Oh don’t get your tail in a twist. It’s not that bad.” Chloé said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ve seen worse.” Marinette admitted, snickering. “Cha- uh...One of my friends got his t- _belt_ stuck between the bars of my balcony fence. He was practically hanging by it. I’m honestly surprised it held that well. It took the both of us to get him unstuck.”

Chloé lost it, doubling over with laughter, almost crying at the thought of Chat Noir, i.e. Adrien Agreste, hanging from Marinette’s balcony and asking her for help getting back up. It takes her a full two minutes straight to calm down before she can turn her attention back to her phone, where Adrien’s face had gone from an embarrassed shade of pink to a full on cherry red, as he’d probably immediately recognised the story, but then he pulled himself together.

“Sounds like this guy is pretty clumsy.” He said, forcing a grin on his face, clearly despite his embarrassment. Marinette had just smiled at the camera and a bit of a wistful look crossed her face.

“Oh he’s really not, he’s a goofball sometimes, but that’s just part of his charm.” Chloé had to roll her eyes at the adoring look that Adrien was now giving Marinette through the camera.

That boy was a _goner_.

Eventually Marinette stepped away to go and toss out the trash and use the restroom before they needed to head back to class, leaving Chloé with Adrien on the phone by themselves. 

“I really think you should tell her, Adrikins.”

“Tell who what?” Adrien looks away from the screen and Chloe just knows that he realizes exactly what she means.

“Oh don’t play dumb with me, Agreste. You give her the same goey, lovesick look that Chat Noir gave Ladybug every time that I was helping the two of them out.” The clearly red coloring of the tips of Adrien’s ears is intensely satisfying to Chloe. 

“I’ll do it if you talk to Kagami!” Adrien hisses out through his embarrassment, causing Chloe to snort out a laugh. 

“Oh you poor, poor oblivious boy. Have you talked to her recently?” She asked with a grin.

“Uh.”

“I’m pretty sure that she told me that she told you already, but we’re going on our third date.” Adrien’s jaw dropped and eyes widened. “Oh pick your jaw up off the floor, you look like a loser. Anyway, it’s just something for you to think about! Talk to you later, Adrien! We need to head back to School. Ta-ta~!” Chloe wiggles her fingers as a farewell as she ends the call hearing Adrien whine out a pathetic “Heeeyy” As she pressed the end button with a snicker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened when Chat Noir got stuck on Marinette's balcony:
> 
> He’d been sitting on the railing and somehow his tail got snagged badly, so when he got up to go inside with her he was jerked back because, duh, he was standing on a railing. This left him dangling from the railing in a fair amount of distress. “Err… A little help, Princess?” He'd asked, and that had Marinette wheezing. She'd needed to help him get back up, which was surprisingly easy because she finally asked him if he could just sit on his baton while she untangled his tail.


End file.
